A recent federal report is fueling fears South Carolina could become a permanent disposal ground for plutonium, a radioactive metal that is among the deadliest atomic materials in the world.

The U.S. Department of Energy, in a June 16 report to Congress, said it has not determined what to do with plutonium shipped from the Rocky Flats, Colo., nuclear weapons complex to the Savannah River Site.

That report said plutonium from the Rocky Flats site “currently is without a disposition path.”

Energy Department officials have planned a $3.8 billion complex at SRS to turn the leftover bomb-grade plutonium into fuel for nuclear power plants near Charlotte. According to DOE plans, about 34 metric tons from federal nuclear weapons sites — including some from Rocky Flats — would be converted into fuel at the Aiken-area weapons complex.

DOE spokesman Joe Davis said late Tuesday the agency still plans to do that.

But anti-nuclear groups said the agency’s own report indicates otherwise. They said the report raises questions about what to do with plutonium from at least four federal sites, including Rocky Flats.

Greenpeace activist Tom Clements said it is further evidence the government’s program to turn plutonium into nuclear fuel is unraveling.

A key House committee already has cut $165 million from the mixed oxide fuel project this year. And the start of the fuel plant’s construction has been delayed from this summer until at least next spring.

“That plutonium is being accumulated at SRS with no plans for its disposition is alarming news to people in South Carolina,” said Amanda Martin, director of the Carolina Peace Resource Center in Columbia.

The Energy Department has shipped about six metric tons of plutonium from Rocky Flats to SRS in the past two years.

“We warned that accumulating plutonium at SRS could turn the site into a de facto permanent storage facility — and that appears to be coming true,” Martin said.

The issue has been a hot one in South Carolina for more than two years.

Former Gov. Jim Hodges sued the DOE in 2002 and threatened to block shipments of plutonium to SRS unless the federal government could guarantee the state it would remove the deadly material one day.

Sen. Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., persuaded Congress to approve legislation requiring the plutonium’s eventual removal. But Hodges maintained the law could be easily changed to suit the Energy Department’s future plans.

Will Folks, a spokesman for Gov. Mark Sanford, said the governor expects the DOE to get rid of any plutonium it can’t convert to mixed oxide fuel.

The Energy Department’s report to Congress indicates it has a plan to take care of any plutonium it can’t make into mixed oxide fuel: It could be made into glass, a process similar to one the DOE considered but abandoned as too expensive two years ago.

The Energy Department is conducting a preliminary study of the plan, the report said.

Like mixed oxide fuel, the idea behind the glass process is to make leftover plutonium useless for nuclear bombs. The United States and Russia have been working for years to render a total of 68 metric tons unusable for atomic weapons. Plutonium, a key component in nuclear weapons, can increase cancer risks if inhaled.

Reach Fretwell at (803) 771-8537 or sfretwell@thestate.com.